Fieldsites

Site design

Fractal arrangement of field sites in Right-Hand Fork, Utah

To the right, you can see the network of 27 sites we have established in Logan Valley, close to Utah State University. The sites are arranged in a ‘fractal’ pattern, which (as well as looking pretty) allows us to more efficiently sample variation in community structure across space and environmental gradients. Each site has a micro-climate sensor that we used to detect when snow falls and melts and ambient temperature.

Future work

The views aren’t too bad either!

The best thing about fieldwork is the nice views (see picture to the right), but a very close second is the data you get from it! In next year’s field season, we have funding to extend the sampling of our sites to:

Expand our functional trait and phylogenetic dataset of the species in the system. More traits, and better-resolved phylogenies, are always useful!

Place micro-phenology cameras to record when flowers bloom across the sites

Establish more sites! We’d like to expand at finer and broader spatial scales, following the fractal pattern of the existing sites